Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a transport container for textile packages, especially sliver, wherein the transport container has a preferably rectangular outline and a vertically displaceable bottom element.
It is conventional to supply the spinning stations of open-end spinning machines, for instance, with feed sliver, which is deposited in spinning cans having a round cross section. Such round cans as a rule are made of plastic, and in order to ensure that the sliver will be deposited on the drawing frame gently, they have a spring-loaded can bottom. The filled round cans are retrieved from the drawing frame or card by a transport vehicle, transported to the spinning stations of the open-end spinning machine, and there exchanged for spinning cans that have run empty. Since the diameter of such round cans is greater than the width of the spinning stations at which the sliver is processed, the spinning cans have to be placed in at least two rows one after the other in the region of the spinning stations.
Since spinning cans that have run empty should be replaced with spinning cans having new feed material as immediately as possible, a "random changing" system is employed. The can changing process proves to be relatively complicated, especially if the change is to be made automatically and the can to be changed is located in the back row.
Attempts have therefore already been made in the past to simplify the can changing operation by using flattened spinning cans.
German Petty Patent G 88 12 622 and German Published, Non-Prosecuted Applications DE 40 15 938 A1 and DE 40 18 088 A1 have described the use of such flattened spinning cans in the transport system including the drawing frame and the open-end spinning machine.
Such spinning cans, for instance those known from German Published, Non-Prosecuted Application DE-OS 25 17 344, are adjusted in their width to the width of the spinning station of the applicable spinning machine, so that all of the spinning cans equipped with feed material can be positioned side by side, to enable avoiding having a second, back row of spinning cans. Although the use of flattened spinning cans that are ready for the spinning station has simplified the can changing operation in the region of the spinning stations, it has been found that such spinning cans have certain disadvantages. For instance, handling of such transport devices in the region of the drawing frame or card may be unsatisfactory.
Transport containers with other than a round outline, for instance rectangular ones, are also known, for instance from German Published, Prosecuted Applications DE-AS 11 07 566 and 15 10 248, German Published, Non-Prosecuted Application DE-OS 19 23 621, or German Petty Patent GM 76 18 538. Some of those transport containers include many individual parts, and the containers are quite expensive to manufacture.